‘Melrose,’ ‘90210’ to kick off Sept. 8

CW announces fall premiere schedule

The CW will kick off its fall campaign on Sept. 8 with the sophomore year of “90210” and the bow of “Melrose Place.”

Net has also decided to flop the time slots of its Monday dramas, which will send “Gossip Girl” to the 9 p.m. hour.

It’s the second year in a row that “90210” is the centerpiece of the net’s fall launch campaign, and CW is hoping that anticipation will be high for the remodeled “Melrose.” CW is getting a jumpstart on its competish by launching the week of Sept. 8, but it won’t be quite as quick out of the gate as last year, when the net’s fall sked launched on Labor Day.

The rollout continues Sept. 9 with the two-hour preem of “America’s Next Top Model,” followed Sept. 10 by the preem of “Vampire Diaries” and return of “Supernatural.”

The Monday slate returns on Sept. 14, though the “Gossip Girl”-“One Tree Hill” slot swap will take effect July 6 with repeat segs. The regular Wednesday slate of “Top Model” and newbie drama “A Beautiful Life” arrives on Sept. 16.

CW’s Friday lineup of “Smallville” and “Top Model” repeat will not materialize until Sept. 25. On Friday Sept. 11 and Sept. 18, the net plans to run repeats of its new dramas.

CW will also rerun segs of its new series on Sundays through Sept. 27, when it formally returns five hours of program time to its affiliate stations. CW confirmed last month that it is bowing out of Sunday programming in an effort to strengthen its overall primetime perf (Daily Variety, May 5).

CW also confirmed to its affiliate stations this month that it will give back one hour of its two-hour Monday-Friday daytime block as of the 2010-11 season. At present it programs the 3-5 p.m. block with yakker “The Tyra Banks Show,” one original and one repeat seg. As of 2010-11, it will return the 4-5 p.m. hour to affiliates.